Subcommittee vote gets mixed reviews

More players stepped into the HR1542 fray, hoping to sway Congress on whether or not DSL should be covered under the '96 Telecom Act.

CompTel, a communications industry association, issued a statement urging Congress to scrap the Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act of 2001, aka the Tauzin-Dingell bill. The bill's main sponsors are Rep. Bill Tauzin (R-La.) and Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.).

CompTel President H. Russell Frisby Jr. called the bill's close vote in passing the Telecommunications and Internet subcommittee yesterday a "red flag to Congress."

For its part, Qwest Communications International applauded the subcommittee's vote. Senior VP of policy and law Steve Davis said in a statement the legislation eliminates regulations that make it tough to compete with cable companies and leave laws covering local phone company competition.